So, he left for Miami.
There's conspiracy theories abound as to how and why this happened, from a logistical standpoint, but they're ignorable. For the most part, they seem at best to be whining (justified, to be sure, but still whining) from fans of teams that didn't get their way. One of the more enduring sentiments regarding James' character, however, is that his desire to play with other elite players, as opposed to beating them on his own, exposed the fact that he wasn't competitive. He would rather be second fiddle on a team that could win rings easily than number one on a team that would find it difficult.
A day or so after LeBron's decision (which was an hour long special on ESPN), sportswriter Bill Simmons posted unadorned e-mails from readers in a special mailbag column. Some snippets, from readers who mailed in and from Simmons himself include:
"Michael Jordan would have wanted to kick Dwyane Wade's butt every spring, not play with him. This should be mentioned every day for the rest of LeBron's career. It's also the kryptonite for any "Some day we'll remember LeBron James as the best basketball player ever" argument. We will not. Jordan and Russell were the greatest players of all time. Neither of them would have made the choice that LeBron did. That should tell you something."
"As a Knick fan I'm not even mad, I'm just disappointed. He gave up. He quit. The most gifted basketball player ever said "I can't do it." How disheartening is that for sports fans? He had options, and good options, to be the man on a good team with a legitimate second banana (Amare, Rose) or stay with a 60-win team, but he chose to ride the coattails of Wade. Wow. He gave away his shot at being the greatest ever ... or even entering the discussion. What competitor does that?"
"I waited 27 minutes to hear LeBron say that he was gonna be Dwyane Wade's lackey? What a joke."
"My perspective is simple: there is no way Michael Jordan ever makes this choice. None. It's sad for Cleveland, that is for sure. But, honestly, I think it's sadder for basketball because we're missing the chance to see a basketball specimen come into his own and reach that rarified level of transcendent player. Maybe the Heat play beautiful basketball, but I think no matter what this will be remembered for three things: LeBron's ego, the realization that he is scared to be great, and that we all know, no matter what, Michael Jordan never would have chosen this path. LeBron will never touch Jordan's shadow at this point, let alone surpass him. And I think that lack of chase is a sad day for basketball."
None of this is wrong. I agree with, let's say most of it. What it illustrates to me more than anything else isn't that LeBron isn't a competitor, but that he was never given the opportunity to become a competitor. Let me explain.
LeBron James was drafted into the NBA fresh out of high school. He had played organized basketball for years as a kid in AAU before that. Obviously, there's a clear and distinct difference between AAU/High School basketball and professional basketball. But, more importantly to this argument, is that there is a clear and distinct difference between AAU/High School basketball and college basketball.
If you're in your early to mid 20s and remember one thing about high school sports, what you probably remember is sportsmanship. You shake hands with your opponents before the game, after the game, maybe at half time. You don't trash talk. It's not so much competitive basketball as it is an officially scored series of pickup games.
In short, there is a very low level of competitiveness in these types of games. It's a product of our society insisting upon making sure every kid maintains a high self-esteem, to make sure that every kid feels special and loved. I've got other problems with this viewpoint, but that's for another blog post.
My point is, that while some people may be simply born with an ultra-competitive nature, it's for the most part drilled out of us in these younger years. Don't taunt another player. Don't challenge your coach or the referees. Shake hands and say "Good game." This has to take its toll at some point. It's teaching basketball as an activity as opposed to a sport.
So how do we get these athletes to understand how competitive they're expected to be in a professional setting?
Have you seen a college basketball crowd lately?
People throw all caution to the wind in cheering for their college sports teams. When it's a Division I school, where these talented high school athletes would be going, that sense of competition suddenly becomes do or die. You're doing this for your school. You're doing this for the people you see in the quad every day. You're doing this not for yourself, but for something intangibly bigger. Coaches don't go easy on you, trying to protect your self-esteem, they're preparing you to win six straight games in the NCAA tournament against teams that are going as hard as you are.
College sports, to the fans, to the coaches, to the school, they're a serious business. And it's precisely because they're a business. The money brought in by successful college sports helps support the school. As a result, the players for these college teams have no choice but to raise their level of competition up. They have to take it just as seriously, or become irreparably left behind.
The recent rule change in the NBA that high school stars have to spend a year in college or a year playing professionally overseas is a good start. But it still misses at the core reason for its own existence. You need to indoctrinate these players into the culture of competition. Only a year at college won't do that. They'll be treating it as their own highlight reel. The NFL rule makes more sense, where they have to have at least three years under their belt. It makes these athletes a part of something they have to respect, or they will fail.
Playing professionally overseas for a year is a better lesson for these kids. They're surrounded by men who aren't making the fabulous money that NBA players are. Instead, they're fighting for playing time and pay checks, for the right to play another game. It's a crash course in taking the sport seriously, in realizing that to most people, it's not merely a game, it's also a source of inspiration, pride, and ownership.
The primary response to this viewpoint has also exposed a strange generational gap, or at least a gap in those who watch sports to be entertained and those who watch sports and feel something for their team. This response seemed to be: "LeBron just wants to have fun." Again, from the Simmons mailbag:
"Bill, in your LeBronocalypse column, you said the message LeBron was sending by signing with the Heat was "Help!" Is it possible that this was more about LeBron deciding that what he wanted most was to have fun? Think about it, he never went to college and has been looked upon as a franchise savior since before he was drafted, now he can live in one of most fun cities in America and play ball with two of his best buddies in the league, and he doesn't have to carry the franchise every night. I'm not saying he went about announcing his decision the right way, I'm just saying, if it were me, I'd jump at the chance to get paid to play with two of my best buds in a town where we can have tons of other fun on our days off."
"At 25 if you had the opportunity to spend the next 5 years with two of your best friends living in South Beach winning NBA championships would you pass that up? I think we overestimate how much this guy thinks about his "legacy." This is someone who calls his mom on the morning of The Decision, and right after The Decision, for moral support. He is a 25-year-old kid, not a 25-year-old man. This is EASILY the FUNNEST scenario. What other choice could there have been?"
For someone who never saw sports as competition before he was thrust into playing professional basketball at 18, for someone who learned (and seems never to have unlearned) basketball as something to be shared between friends, there wasn't another choice. We've created a world where it's perfectly possible to enter into professional sports without understanding the connection fans feel with their teams, without understanding the level of competitiveness needed to succeed.
LeBron had to leave Cleveland for Miami.
He didn't understand any other way.
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